Floor selector system

ABSTRACT

A selector system for use with dumbwaiter or elevator lift equipment whereby a linearly movable adjustable cam member and a fixed cam member are provided on a portable device such as a cart for engagement with switch members on an elevator lift shaftway frame to provide signals to the elevator lift car equipment for controlling the pick up and delivery of the cart to a specific floor as determined by the position of the movable cam member, or to provide an additional call signal for other purposes as desired.

United States Patent Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee FLOOR SELECTOR SYSTEM 8 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 187/1; 187/28 Int. Cl B66b 9/00 Field ofSearch 187/1, 28

[56} References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,853,158 9/l958 Brandon 187/48 3,367,450 2/1968 Lester 187/52 3,447,704 6/1969 Guilbert 187/3 Primary Examiner-Harvey C. Hornsby A Morney-Zachary T. Wobensmith II ABSTRACT: A selector system for use with dumbwaiter or elevator lift equipment whereby a linearly movable adjustable cam member and a fixed cam member are provided on a portable device such as a cart for engagement with switch members on an elevator lift shaftway frame to provide signals to the elevator lift car equipment for controlling the pick up and delivery of the cart to a specific floor as determined by the position of the movable cam member, or to provide an additional call signal for other purposes as desired.

PATENTED FEB23|97| 3.565215 sum 2 0F 3 INVENTORS NICHOLAS R. GU/LBERT, JR. LOU/S P. ME TZ AT TOR/V5 Y FLOOR SELECTOR SYSTEM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention A selector system for use with portable devices such as carts which consists of a fixed cam member and an adjustable cam member on the cart which engage switch members on a dumbwaiter or elevator lift shaftway frame to provide a signal to the elevator lift to pick up the cart and deliver it to a preselected floor.

2. Description of the Prior Art The development of ever larger and more complex hospital and other buildings has greatly increased the problem of delivery of carts to specific floors within the buildings. With a multiplicity of carts at a central station where they are loaded or unloaded with various goods and the carts coming from or going to different floors, it may become necessary to station an attendant at a car shaftway entrance to select the floor to which each cart is to go and to signal the elevator lift car to pick up the cart and deliver it to a particular floor.

' This requires considerable extra personnel as well as extra equipment and obviates some of the advantages of a lift system one of which is to reduce costs by reducing the number of personnel.

No suitable automatically operating car calling and floor selection system has been proposed prior to the present inven tion. The floor selector system of the present invention can be set .on each cart at a central station by the person loading or unloading goods from the cart so that the cart will be automatically delivered to the floor desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A floor selector system particularly for portable devices such as carts which provides a signal for the dumbwaiter or elevator lift car to come to the floor and pick up the cart, and simultaneously with the loading of the cart onto the car, provides a signal for the car to deliver the cart to a particular floor, such system having a fixed call cam and a linearly movable delivery cam member which engage switches mounted on the elevator lift shaftway entrance frame and thereby signal the car for pickup and also signal to which floor the cart is to be delivered.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a floor selector system for carts whereby a signal is available to call the dumbwaiter or elevator lift car and a signal is available to direct the delivery of a cart to a predetermined floor.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a floor selector system for carts which is simple and inexpensive to construct but sturdy and reliable in operation.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a floor selector system for carts which can be used with both old and new car equipment as well as with a variety of carts.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a floor selector system for carts that requires a minimum of personnel to operate.

Other objects and advantageous features of the invention will be apparent from the description and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The nature and characteristic features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective with portions broken away to show the interior of a dumbwaiter system which incorporates the apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial top plan view of the movable cam portion of the floor selector system as mounted on the cart;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view, enlarged, taken approximately on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view, enlarged, taken approximately on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view, taken approximately on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4', and

FIG. 6 is an end view of a portion of the apparatus shown in DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now more particularly to the drawings, a cart 10 of conventional design is there illustrated, having a frame II with wheels 12 at each of the four corners of the frame for support thereof. A horizontal cabinet 14 is carried by the frame 11 and provided with interior compartments (not shown) for the reception of various goods to be transported.

The wheels 12 are carried by the floor 16 which has a central channel 17 therein with two vertical upright plates 18 extending the length of channel 17 for guiding engagement with a cart coupling member 19' such as that shown in application Ser. No. 81 1,962, filed Apr. 7, I969. A pusher blade assembly 20 is engaged with the cart coupling member 19 and as illustrated is of the type shown in application Ser. No. 81 1,962 but other types of car coupling members may be used as desired. The blade assembly 20 is partially illustrated in FIG. 1, and is more fully described in the above identified application.

The wheels 12 are guided in their movement by a pair of flanges 21 which are fastened to floor l6 and extend to a sill or door plate 22 located in front of a dumbwaiter shaftway entrance 27. The sill plate 22 may be provided with stop openings 23 which are more fully described in my prior application Ser. No. 811,962. The shaftway 27 includes a set of upper and lower shaftway doors 28 and an exterior frame 29. The frame 29 includes a horizontal upper plate 30 and two vertical supporting side plates 31 connected thereto and extending to floor 16.

The cabinet 14 of cart 10 at any desired locations, such as the top wall 33 thereof is provided with a cam carrying bracket 34. The bracket 34 has a rectangular plate 35 affixed thereto preferably of metal or other suitable material and provided with a series of holes 36 therein which are respectively numbered for the various floors of the building. The plate 35 is fixedly secured to a plate 37 of lesser width which is fastened to the cabinet 14 by screws 38. A linearly movable cam 40 is provided on plate 35 and is illustrated more fully in FIG. 3, which cam includes a half cylindrical plate 41 which is secured by a slide shoe 42 which extends over the edges 43 of the plate 35. A bullet catch is provided which consists of a cavity 45 in plate 41 containing a spring 46 and a ball 47 which is received in the holes 36. The cam '40 is free to slide along plate 35 with stops at the respective numbered portions corresponding to the various floors ofthe building.

A fixed cam 50 is provided at the right-hand end of plate 35 which acts to engage a switch 68A on the door frame (to be described below) to signal the car equipment (not shown) that the cart is to be transferred to another elevator lift car or to provide an audible signal to an attendant that the cart has arrived. The cam 50 has the same configuration as plate 41 of cam 40 and is rigidly secured to the top 33 of cabinet 14. At the right-hand front of the cabinet 14, an additional fixed cam 52 is provided similar to cam 50 and which engages a control switch (to be later described) to provide a signal to call the dumbwaiter car to come to the floor at which the cart 10 is located and cause the cart 10 to be loaded thereon.

The shaftway door frame 29 at a location determined by the location of the cam carrying bracket 34, and such as on the.

plate 30 has an opening 53 in the center thereof wherein a floor signalling control assembly 55 is mounted by screws 56; The assembly 55 includes an outer housing 61 with inner plate 62 fastened to the upper plate 30 to which a series of brackets 63 are fastened. The brackets 63 each has an electric switch 64 mounted thereon of conventional type and of a number such that there is one corresponding to each of the floors of the building.

The brackets 63 each has an L-shaped arm 65 rotatably mounted thereto by shafts 66 extending down below housing 61 through holes 70, with the upper portion 71 of the arm in contact with a spring biased shaft 67 extending down from the solenoid 64. The arms 65 each also has a roller 68 rotatably attached thereto by shafts 69 which is contacted by the cam 40 when the cart is moving onto the dumbwaiter car.

At the right side of housing 61, as seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, a bracket 72 is provided attached to plate 62 and with an electric switch 64A and arm 65A, of the same structure as for arm 65, with shaft 66A, shaft 69A, roller 68A and is engaged by the cam 52 to provide a signal to call the dumbwaiter car (not shown) to the floor to pick up the cart 10 and deliver it to the desired floor.

The cart 10 is additionally provided with a bar 75 attached to the cabinet 14 at the rear thereof adjacent to the plate 35 by brackets 76 and rotatable therein. The bar 75 also has rubber bumpers 77 at each end thereof which may serve as a hand hold when moving the cart and cushion the cart from blows.

The mode of operation will now be pointed out.

A cart 10 is placed in the channel 17 and pushed towards the shaftway 27 by the blade assembly 20 engaging the car coupling member 19. The cam 52 engages arm 65A which moves and actuates switch 64A. A signal is thus provided by actuation of switch 64A which through appropriate circuitry (not shown) well known in the art calls the car (not shown) to come to the floor and pick up cart 10. The car (not shown) arrives, doors 28 open and mechanism (not shown) well known in the art engages the cart coupling member 19 and moves the cart onto the car, as the cart 10 moves onto the car (not shown) the cam 65 depending on the position of the cam on plate 35 according to the floor desired for delivery and by actuation of the selected switch provides a signal to the car to deliver the cart thereto. The cam 50 engages arm 65A as cart 10 moves onto the car (not shown) and may signal the car to transfer the cart to another elevator lift car or provide an audible signal. The cart 10 is then delivered to the floor for which the cam 40 has been positioned on plate 35 and may be unloaded as desired and transferred to another lift car or used as desired. The cam 40 may be reset for actuation of an arm 65 for delivery to another floor where the cycle may be repeated as desired.

It will thus be seen that apparatus has been provided with which the objects of the invention are achieved.

We claim:

1. A selector system for use with lift equipment including a portable device, a shaftway having a frame and a vertically movable elevator lift car therein, the system comprising:

fixed cam means on said portable device at the front thereof;

adjustably positioned cam means on said portable device;

first signal means at said shaftway frame actuated by contact with said fixed cam means providing an elevator lift car call signal; and

second signal means at said frame actuated by contact with said adjustably positioned cam means providing a car delivery signal.

2. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which said adjustably positioned cam means includes:

a mounting bracket having a plurality of predetermined locations thereon;

a cam carried by said mounting bracket for positioning at one of said locations; and

releasable holding means for said cam.

3. A selector system as defined in claim 2 in which said releasable holding means includes a resilient member.

4. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which at least one of said signal means includes an operating arm which is actuated by one of said cam means.

5. A selector system as defined in claim 4 in which said operating arm is pivotally mounted, and a resilient member is provided for urging said arm to a predetermined position.

6. A selector system as defined in claim 5 in which said operating arm has a roller for engagement by said cam.

7. A selector s stem as defined in claim) in which: said mounting racket has a bar extending therealong;

said cam has a clamp portion extending in engagement with said bar; and

said releasable holding means is resiliently actuated to holding position.

8. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which:

additional fixed cam means is provided on said portable device contiguous to said adjustably mounted cam means; and

additional signal means is provided on said shaftway frame actuated by said additional fixed cam means. 

1. A selector system for use with lift equipment including a portable device, a shaftway having a frame and a vertically movable elevator lift car therein, the system comprising: fixed cam means on said portable device At the front thereof; adjustably positioned cam means on said portable device; first signal means at said shaftway frame actuated by contact with said fixed cam means providing an elevator lift car call signal; and second signal means at said frame actuated by contact with said adjustably positioned cam means providing a car delivery signal.
 2. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which said adjustably positioned cam means includes: a mounting bracket having a plurality of predetermined locations thereon; a cam carried by said mounting bracket for positioning at one of said locations; and releasable holding means for said cam.
 3. A selector system as defined in claim 2 in which said releasable holding means includes a resilient member.
 4. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which at least one of said signal means includes an operating arm which is actuated by one of said cam means.
 5. A selector system as defined in claim 4 in which said operating arm is pivotally mounted, and a resilient member is provided for urging said arm to a predetermined position.
 6. A selector system as defined in claim 5 in which said operating arm has a roller for engagement by said cam.
 7. A selector system as defined in claim 2 in which: said mounting bracket has a bar extending therealong; said cam has a clamp portion extending in engagement with said bar; and said releasable holding means is resiliently actuated to holding position.
 8. A selector system as defined in claim 1 in which: additional fixed cam means is provided on said portable device contiguous to said adjustably mounted cam means; and additional signal means is provided on said shaftway frame actuated by said additional fixed cam means. 